What the Cat dragged in
Disclaimer – I own nothing, all characters belong to their creators.
Chapter 2
Damon laughed and pushed Bonnie towards Eric. "Darling, meet Eric, vampire-lord, who has just accepted you in trade!"
Before Bonnie could start protesting, Damon gave Eric a sharp look asking "My lord, can we speak in private?". Eric nodded and blurred into his office, where he waited for the younger vampire to join him.
"Damon, can I ask what this is really about? What is worth a fire-starter to you?"
Damon held his gaze, before looking down and picking up a wolf ornament as he considered his answer.
"Eric, my maker never formally released my brother and I. But she absented herself shortly after we were turned and now she is back. We live quietly inside your territory, a small town – Mystic Falls. And now Katherine and her entourage are back terrorising us. She can compel my brother and I. She is taking her revenge on our perceived disloyalty."
Throwing the ornament down in despair, Damon's visage bled black as he laughed mournfully. "You asked me what the fire-starter was worth to me. Everything. Katherine wants her dead, and as she has 400 years on me, I can't stop her."
Eric chuckled – "But I can, is that it?"
Damon nodded and sighed: "Look, I know what I'm asking and what I've just done, but I'd rather Bonnie was alive with you than dead. We share a blood bond, and I am bound by oath to protect her lineage. I need you to call a court of the dead so that we can gain our freedom from Katherine and have her disciplined for breaking the code."
Eric gazed into the flickering fire smiling. He could hear the desperation in the young vampire's voice, and he had been right – makers...
"Well, I am sure that something can be sorted. I'll ring the King's agent tonight and let him know of your situation. I'm sure he'll send someone to investigate Mystic Falls. In the meantime you may stay in my nest. Bonnie will stay with me."
He watched with interest as Damon relaxed, as if losing his girlfriend and blood-bonded to a vampire elder, was nothing to worry about. And then he got it. He'd been given an uncompellable witch who could set him on fire if he tried anything. Oh, the young whipper-snapper was good...
Well, that didn't mean he couldn't try to seduce the pretty little witch... oh it had been a while since he'd sampled the blood of an elemental. And as Bill had learned, no one beat Eric at his own game. Sookie was still mooning over that dreg for brains shape-shifter, although he had betrayed her. And until she came to her senses and admitted her love for him, Eric had time to seduce Bonnie.